[Photo: Bruce Bennett]<\/p>\n
After just longer than a year on the job, the PGA of America\u2019s chief executive has resigned.<\/p>\n
In a surprise announcement overnight (Australian time), Derek Sprague will step down as head of the organisation, a move he says is to return to New York in support of his family. Sprague informed the PGA of America of his intentions in December.<\/p>\n
RELATED: \u2018There\u2019s no change\u2019: PGA of America holds firm on golf ball rollback stance<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAt my daughter\u2019s wedding last month in upstate New York, it became clear that my family needs me nearby to assist with the care of my mother and mother\u2011in\u2011law,\u201d Sprague said in a statement. \u201cFocusing on family has become my priority, and the best decision for me is to step away from my role as CEO and return home to be with them.<\/p>\n \u201cServing as CEO of the PGA of America over the past year has been an incredible honour, and I will always be grateful for the trust placed in me by the board and thank them for their understanding. I also want to thank our staff for their tireless dedication. Their passion and commitment inspire me, and I know the association will continue to thrive as it carries forward the proud mission of serving our members and growing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Sprague was named chief executive of the PGA of America in December 2024, taking over from Seth Waugh after the latter\u2019s retirement. It was a notable appointment; Sprague became the first former PGA president to serve as CEO, and it ended a 20-year period without a PGA professional in the role. Sprague had spent 25 years at his hometown Malone Golf Club in New York and was named to the organisation\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2019. Among members and leadership, Sprague was well-respected and liked.<\/p>\n However, his past year was a turbulent one. He was adamantly against<\/a> the proposed golf-ball rollback from the R&A and USGA, leading to a strain of sorts between the PGA of America and golf\u2019s other governing bodies. Additionally, Sprague oversaw a Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black that drew criticism for its handling of crowd control<\/a> as raucous galleries regularly hurled verbal abuse at the European team, particularly Rory McIlroy<\/a>, creating an environment that European captain Luke Donald asserted \u201ccrossed a line\u201d. Sprague eventually issued an apology<\/a> to McIlroy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no place for that at the Ryder Cup, no place for it in the game of golf, and we are not happy with what happened last week,\u201d Sprague said afterwards.<\/p>\n The PGA of America will announce a new leader in the next month. The move represents more turnover among golf\u2019s \u201cfive families\u201d, as the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, R&A and LPGA all have leaders who are new to the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Bruce Bennett] After just longer than a year on the job, the PGA of America\u2019s chief executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,155538,755,138747,44,118557,85],"class_list":["post-399968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-derek-sprague","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-pga-of-america","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}